Why Mystics Sit On Mountaintops
January 6, 2010
Have you ever thought about why mystics sit on mountaintops? I mean really, what the heck are they doing up there?
Some years ago I had the chance to visit a meditation hut on top of a small mountain and found out for myself just why mystics go to places like that. I was with a boyfriend at the time who was obnoxiously spiritual. In fact no he was a Mr. Spiritual Know-It-All!
Anyway he and I decided to take a trek to the ashram of a former yogi whom I had never heard of but apparently was very famous. Again Mr. Know-It-All knew the story but I was just following along for the fun. I can never ever resist a great adventure, especially the mystical type.
We went up this small mountain to find this charming hut in the woods, where apparently the master had lived the last years of his life. The story went that the master had spent many hours meditating in the hut and thus they had created a shrine for him in the room in which he meditated.
We walked into the room and I immediately felt a beautiful peaceful vibration. Again I didn’t know the master or his story, but there was a giant photo of his beautiful smiling serene face and I loved him immediately. I felt really grateful that I could come to ‘meet’ him, even though he was not there in person. I never let little things like that stop me from getting to know someone.
My (annoying) boyfriend and I sat down to ‘meditate‘. Please note here that the word meditate is not really accurate because I totally can’t meditate and I don’t enjoy it at all. But the part I didn’t tell you about the annoying boyfriend is that I was in a little bit of a ‘prove myself’ type of competition with him and I wasn’t going to tell him that I didn’t know how to meditate. Give him a chance to one up me?? No way!
Now I know you are wondering why I was with this spiritual jerk in the first place? But that’s another story that we’ll have to save for later. Now back to the mystic on the mountaintop….
We sat in front of the shrine, closed our eyes and meditated – he for real and me pretending. While I was pretending to meditate, I got very curious. I am naturally curious about people anyway but I started to think to myself, “Why the heck did the master spend the last years of his life in this little room, rather than out in the world teaching people?”
I was really curious about this. What I didn’t realize is that the master was actually listening. I swear on my dog that he answered me out loud (in my head).
He said, “The reason I was here is because when I’m here, I’m not really here, but I’m actually wherever I want to be.”
Wow, that was deep! What I got from that is that through his ‘meditation’ he could travel in his mind and effect change on whatever level he wanted to, where ever he wanted to.
Wow, that was cool. I had never heard anything like that before and I naively and excitedly opened my eyes and blurted out the story to my snooty boyfriend. When I told him what he said a look of horror came over his face. He said, “He said what?”
I told him again. Apparently it was one of the things that the master used to share regularly in his teachings. Unfortunately this made my boyfriend realize that this was an actual visitation by the renowned guru, rather than just a figment of my active imagination.
He was livid! He didn’t say so of course but I could see the veins pulsing in his neck. I am sure that he was wondering, “Why didn’t the master speak to me?”
And to that I would reply, “Because you were too busy being concerned with yourself!” Oops, I shouldn’t have said that (tee hee).
When I went to leave the shrine, I turned around to thank the master in my mind for his grace. He winked at me and said, “Dump the guy.” I swear on my dog he did!
So now you know that the reason mystics sat on mountain tops is because from there you can leave your small self behind and get a sense of the bigger (and more important) picture of life – something that my self-centered boyfriend desperately needed to do.
So did I dump him? The boyfriend that is? To get the answer to that, you’re going to have to trek to the top of that mountain top and ask the mystic. But don’t worry, it will do you good – there is lots of fresh air and a fresh perspective waiting for you there. At least that’s what happened for me.
In lieu of finding the mystic maybe today, see how you can let go of that limited point of view like my boyfriend had and seek to share. The mystic will like you for that and maybe he’ll even invite you to return to the top of the mountain for a visit.
Yours in sharing the mysteries of the world,
Annie
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